What It Means to Be a Bird
“I’m unsure of what happened, but I’m almost absolutely positive that I fell from the sky. Though no one else was standing at that point. Everyone was either bloody or still—many, both. Their arms lie slack at their side, their mouths are parted open, and their necks are limp. I’d like to imagine that they fell before they died, but now I’m sure that they died before they fell. It was a rain of feathers and open eyes, after all.” — The 141st ' '''What exactly does it mean to be a “bird”? The concept was first introduced in the short story, “The 141st.” However, the “literal” birds mentioned in the story first appeared in the short story, “The Rim,” and then again later in the novel-in-process, ''Static and Mist. In “The Rim,” they were merely noted once, but in Static and Mist, they appear much more, and link exclusively to the Fulton family, including Lannie, Maudie (his wife), Maudie’s mother, and Lannie’s daughter, who was stillborn as an effect of the the Wellwater incident. In “The 141st,” Maudie’s mother (who was also the narrator) had a dream that her granddaughter had become a bird, or was born as one. In Static and Mist, Lannie was the one who brought the falling of the birds to attention to the town council, but it was always Maudie that actually found them. During the tragedy that overtook the small northern village of Nadinwold, Terredanslecoin, energy was gradually sapped out of the surrounding environment. The plight first affected plants and smaller animals, like insects, but eventually, birds began dropping out of the sky as well. In “The 141st,” Maudie’s mother debated with herself on whether or not the birds had fallen because they died, or if they died before they fell. In the end, she decided it was the latter. “...I dreamed of them all falling from the sky in a rain of feathers and open eyes, falling and dying, or dying and falling; I’m unsure of which came first.” Throughout the first two stories, “The Rim” and Static and Mist, birds in a literal sense may only seem like a small part of the picture, until “The 141st” comes in. The comparison of the people of the town to the birds themselves connects to the whole series. In the reference analysis of the poem, “Birds,” the most simple definition of a “bird” is stated as, “a person who is dying, falling, or failing from a preventable cause, yet do not stop themselves, or are not stopped by others.” The people of Nadinwold could then be considered birds, as, for years, they let themselves and their town deteriorate for the sake of profit. The mass of deaths that occurred at the end of the first two stories would never have happened if the humans hadn’t gotten too greedy, hadn’t extorted their environment. One could argue that their ending wasn’t preventable because they didn’t know any better. However, they had multiple chances to act of signs of unrest and foreboding omens. For example, through no coincidence, the only (to-date) issue brought to the council directly in the story was the falling of the birds that the Fulton family discovered. These birds that fell were a sign of what was to come. Therefore, the people of Nadinwold could be considered “birds.” Their situation could have been prevented, had they shown concern when signs were given, and were able to make a change. Of course, the council themselves had a lot to do with the town’s final decisions; however, if enough people were upset with the way things were, and took action, the council may have done something different. At a more extreme point, the current members could have even been forcibly replaced (with the exception of Ben Mitchells, who was the one member trying to shut the Wellwater market down or slow its growth). The situation in Nadinwold, which started out as a ghost story of sorts, is meant to be a reflection of the real world’s current hold on environmental issues. Perhaps, one day, we will realize that we’re birds too. On another note, as was previously mentioned, a poem was written much later than the three stories, titled “Birds.” It includes five sections, each of which represents a character (or characters) from other another work, those of whom could be considered birds. The fifth is Maudie’s mother herself, the only section that directly mentions birds, even going so far as to imply that the narrator(s) of the entire poem, or maybe the reader(s), are birds themselves. The second and fourth sections are about the same person, referred to as “A” in the poem, “Near the Rupture.” For a decent part of his childhood, he suffered from abuse, and then the resulting trauma for the rest of his life. In one version of his story, he commits suicide, ultimately because he was unable to get the help or happiness he needed. The third section is about a character from the “Mary’s Lamb” series, specifically her situation in the third story. Her ending came gradually, as she actually died in the first story, but was trapped in a personal hell in the third, all as a result of her mistreatment of people in life, which was preventable. Even though she was only a child, perhaps the prevention would start with her mother, who never taught her to be kind, causing her to become a bird nonetheless. The first section is about the doorkeeper from the short story, “When the Morning Comes,” who caused the destruction of their city when they insisted on leaving the door open for both good and bad to enter. Their tolerance to the bad things happening was taken too far, which led the narrator to attempt an intervention by killing them. However, when the narrator realized the doorkeeper was actually a good person, and that they were only “betraying” the city to let in the light as well, they took pity on the doorkeeper and changed their mind about killing them. The story was actually about two halves of the same person’s mind. The doorkeeper was the one who wanted to keep living and experience life despite all the bad things happening. The narrator was the one who that wanted to end their misery. The true story then, was not about two people in a ruined city, but about one person who was debating suicide. In the literal part of the story, the doorkeeper would then be a bird, causing ruin and “dying” or failing, despite being able to close the door any time. In the true story, the doorkeeper is actually the one saving the person, and the narrator would be more like a “bird.” Everyone could be considered a “bird” from time to time. Procrastinating could even be a sign of this. Keeping on bad terms with someone close to you despite neither of you benefiting could lead to worse things; an eventual fallout is a sure sign that you were both birds to an extent. Hopefully, the world population won’t end up as birds when it comes to the environmental situation, or else we could be facing something much worse and more irreversible than the Nadinwold Tragedy. Then again, it’s always easier to tell you’re a bird after you’ve “fallen,” so who knows—maybe we’re already past the point of no return. “I’m sorry, Maudie. All the birds are dead.” — The 141st